Fred kick

I like the look of this pinstripe 66% het genetic stripe listed on kingsnake for 250.00 shipped but now that I am doing some research on these guys I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any thoughts? I am new to ball pythons and I don't want to start off with a sick snake or get ripped of.

There are a LOT of balls out there right now with many more to come in the next few weeks.

If you've got serious doubts, take a pass.

Do a search on the BOI at Fauna... the guy is bad news.

Stay far far far away from the Kick's that is unless you want mites, or to throw away your money on a snake that will not prove out to be het anything. Total flipper and scammer.

Stay away, nothing but bad news.

If memory serves me right, he hardly produces many snakes, rather buys out clutches and so on wholesale and flip them all for profit.

I know he offers microchipping with his hets if you would like. But a 66% isn't a for sure anyways. If you search kingsnake he has a pinstripe genetic stripe for sale that is a sibling to the male het. All of my purchases from fred have been great, and he has always taken the time to answer my questions. Alot of breeders will blow you off when asking basic or beginner questions, but he's answered everything I have asked.

He is a large ball python breeder and has produced some firsts. The hypo genetic stripe has to be one of my favorites still.

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Originally Posted by Iloverhacs

I know he offers microchipping with his hets if you would like. But a 66% isn't a for sure anyways. If you search kingsnake he has a pinstripe genetic stripe for sale that is a sibling to the male het. All of my purchases from fred have been great, and he has always taken the time to answer my questions. Alot of breeders will blow you off when asking basic or beginner questions, but he's answered everything I have asked.

He is a large ball python breeder and has produced some firsts. The hypo genetic stripe has to be one of my favorites still.

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Really, the guy is a scammer and misrepresents most of the animals he sells. Not to mention selling sick animals.

Who cares what he was first to produce, if he cant do things right then he needs not do them at all.

Hes all over the BOI with his and brothers way of taking peoples hard earned money with no remorse


Not to mention the guy contacts me out of the blue to try and insult me. GET real dude GROW UP

Form details below.
Full Name: Fred Kick
Email: reptileaddicts2004@yahoo.com
Snake ID #:
Message: I do not know who you are. Or why you think that I do not have a breeding facility. I have a 7,000 sq ft. breeding facility, unlike you who breeds in your living room. Every every we produce between 200-300 clutches. I am not sure what your problem is with us, enlighten me.
Fred (716) 310-3272

Rich,
"he hardly produces many snakes"

Seeing as how you insulted him first, how has he contacted you out of the blue? Its not a very insulting email, it looks like he personally emailed you, unlike you posting on a forum. He has been the first to produce different morphs, and being the first to produce them he has to be doing something right.

Yes hes doing this hobby right by selling sick animals. Yea hes doing all the right things.

I for one would love to see some pictures of this 7000 sq foot facility. I've been to his store and it's awful and i'm being very kind there. He's a flipper and a scam artist. He's very nice till he gets your money then he doesn't want to know you.
As for the first thing what does that prove? I could rattle off tons of guys who were the first to produce something. Quality trumps all else. Just cause you do it first does not mean you do it best or well at all for that matter.

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Originally Posted by rgang

I like the look of this pinstripe 66% het genetic stripe listed on kingsnake for 250.00 shipped but now that I am doing some research on these guys I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any thoughts? I am new to ball pythons and I don't want to start off with a sick snake or get ripped of.

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I don't know beans about the man from personal experience. But here is a general rule that I find helpful. I should buy from someone with an excellent reputation, even if it I pay a little more for the animal. Spending an extra $50 or $100 bucks up front is nothing compared to the potential cost of a single vet bill.

And if I'm looking to buy hets I'm doubly nuts if I don't buy from a guy or gal with a spotless reputation because with most hets all I really have to assure that I will get what I'm paying for is the seller's integrety.

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

I don't know beans about the man from personal experience. But here is a general rule that I find helpful. I should buy from someone with an excellent reputation, even if it I pay a little more for the animal. Spending an extra $50 or $100 bucks up front is nothing compared to the potential cost of a single vet bill.

And if I'm looking to buy hets I'm doubly nuts if I don't buy from a guy or gal with a spotless reputation because with most hets all I really have to assure that I will get what I'm paying for is the seller's integrety.

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I firmly agree. with as much doubt and haze around Fred kicks reputation I'm not sure why people still take the chance. save your money and get a quality animal, not a quality vet bill.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Xan Powers!

*sniff sniff* anybody else smell that??

:twocents:

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Originally Posted by Xan Powers

I firmly agree. with as much doubt and haze around Fred kicks reputation I'm not sure why people still take the chance. save your money and get a quality animal, not a quality vet bill.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Xan Powers!

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im not tryin to stick up for Fred Kick and say he is a good guy im just inputing this lil bit of information i purchased a 2010 female pinstripe from him and i have had no problems with this animal so far (knocks on wood). normally i dont do this but it was a spur of the moment purchase that i dont regret and im very happy with my purchase normally i would learn more about the person im buying from (example: i watched almost all of Garrick DeMeyers youtube vids before buying from him) :twocents:

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Originally Posted by BigJ

*sniff sniff* anybody else smell that??

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what smells inside your home I could not possibly imagine. what might you be smelling sir


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Xan Powers!

I REALLY wish I would have checked here first.
I bought a "100% het Genetic Stripe male and female" for $100. They arrived today covered in mites, covered in stuck shed, and the male has retained eye caps on both eyes!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
I guess I'll nurse them back to health, and look at it as a lesson learned. (Now I just hope that they ARE 100% hets)

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Originally Posted by mikeandsheleen

I REALLY wish I would have checked here first.
I bought a "100% het Genetic Stripe male and female" for $100. They arrived today covered in mites, covered in stuck shed, and the male has retained eye caps on both eyes!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
I guess I'll nurse them back to health, and look at it as a lesson learned. (Now I just hope that they ARE 100% hets)

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Post this on his Bad GUy Thread on Fauna BOI.

Oooooo...that sucks!! I almost bought a snake from Fred Kick a couple months ago. A really nice looking Pastave. I even sent the money through Paypal. He was very fast to respond to my emails up to that point. After I sent the money, he stopped answering my questions. I decided to google his name for the heck of it and saw his bad guy rants from others. That made me very nervous. LUCKILY I sent the money to the wrong email address!!!!! :oops:
I waited a good week for the refund to my debit card from paypal, but that was well worth it in my opinion. I learned a valuable lesson at that point! ALWAYS do research on your breeders you buy from. I see my snakes as investments as much as they are pets. I am not speaking ill of Fred Kick. I'm sure there's more to some of those stories as well. I've also read that a lot of his high end stuff is really nice. Its the stuff he flips that he won't stand behind it seems...and in my opinion, that is not worth the risk when we are talking hundreds to thousands of dollars.

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Originally Posted by mikeandsheleen

I REALLY wish I would have checked here first.
I bought a "100% het Genetic Stripe male and female" for $100. They arrived today covered in mites, covered in stuck shed, and the male has retained eye caps on both eyes!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
I guess I'll nurse them back to health, and look at it as a lesson learned. (Now I just hope that they ARE 100% hets)

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A het genetic stripe pair for $100? That's one of those "If it sounds too good to be true" deals. :( Maybe he let them go cheap because they're in such bad shape and he didn't want to take the time to work with them....but no matter what, at this point, I'd consider their genetics very suspect. Sorry. :(

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Post this on his Bad GUy Thread on Fauna BOI.

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I have emailed him and I'm giving him 24 hours to respond before I add to the Bad Guy Thread on the BOI, but if I need to, I will.

I do not know Fred Kick. I have never spoken to him or e-mailed him. By paying attention to his ad's for many years, I know he has been working with Hypos (Orange Ghost) and G-stripes for a very long time. Awhile ago I purchased a sub-adult female Black Pastel Het Hypo from a hobbyist who had purchased her from Fred Kick before he saw all that stuff on Fauna about him. After reading all that he decided to sell her for a great price (he had had her for several months and she was in good health). I have seen the reports about the condition of his animals but have never seen issues with his hets proving out and he sells lots of them. Knowing this, I bought her. She is a 2008 and this is the clutch she produced this year from breeding her to our Hypo Black Pewter: 2 Hypo Black Pastels, a Hypo Black Pewter, a Hypo, and a Pastel Het Hypo.
http://www.piedpeddler.com/data/stor...13f374cc06.jpg
There is a big difference between somebody who has poor maintenance/husbandry practices and somebody who is an outright scammer and thief. If he sold them as hets, they probably are.
- Paul

Thank you for that! Reading this does make me feel a little better! :)

i have a female spider and a female black pastel both received in person from fred kick from the store. both have been fantastic and were in great shape. no mites, no bad shed.
there was a time when the store looked pretty bad. it has been a couple years since i have been there. but last time i was it was fine. he does sell a lot of wild caught animals that dont always look the best. the ball python breeding is done in the upstairs of the retail store. if you have seen the size of the store it is huge. my local store gets many of their animals from them and they have never had mites. she does always treat them as soon as they arrive though. so it may not be apparent.
i wont hesitate to do business with him again if he has what i want.
i will say to the poster who just received the pin with stuck eye caps and what not that if they are as bad as you say i wouldnt hesitate to take the appropriate measures to get it resolved even if it means going to the boi.
adam jeffery

I've heard that excuse alot on different forums (and really, I am not trying to start a dispute).
Just because someone is a big producer of ball pythons does not give them the right to let their care and husbandry get to this point. I really don't think the ones I purchased were wild caught (how to sell them as 100% het?), but more likely left overs from one of his morph clutches. Mites aside, stuck shed and retained eyecaps are pretty easily prevented through proper husbandry, and that apparently has not been the case with these. I did look over the pictures that he sent before shipping them, and the stuck shed is way out of focus, and the snakes nose is pointed straight at the camera (could not see the eyecaps). How hard would it have been just to email me and say..."hey, there are some slight problems with these..."
By the way, I only spoke to Fred for about 2 minutes, the rest of the communication was with a "helper"? Kinda poor customer service from the start. Seems like he didn't even have the time to give me his paypal address himself. (I pay him and I get treated like I'm bugging him)

there is never an excuse for poor husbandry or bad customer service. i was just stating my experience's. nor did i mean to imply that your snakes were wild caught. just that he deals in wild caught
adam jeffery